Charlie's Fake Blog

As anybody would notice, if they live in a place that provides the appropriate view, the sun rises and sets in a different location from day to day.  I have watched this cycle play out from the same home location for nearly thirty years.  Combined with that my back porch view of late spring to early summer sunsets includes a communication tower that is, according to Google Earth's ruler tool, five kilometers away.  I've always had the vision of capturing a sunset with the sun framing the tower.  For the past month or so it has rained less than usual and clear sunny days have been common.  I had been watching the sunset move along the horizon from the farthest north on the day of the Solstice to a point where I thought I may have a chance to capture the photo I wanted.  Here is the result of a bit of luck and some perseverance. The tower is five km from my house.  The contrail is from PIT which is about 69 km away. The Sun is about 151.8...

I woke up at about 3:30 this morning and looked out the window to see stars.  Comet NEOWISE or officially C/2020 F3 is visible now so I decided to try to get a picture.  It took a while to find the comet so I first took a picture of Mars, then Venus.  At about 5:00am I walked up the road in order to get a better view of the eastern horizon.  I had to quietly creep into my neighbors yard in order not to wake up his dog.  It was then that I spotted a dim streak to the northeast.  With my tamron 150-600 I was able to get a few different views.  Here they are. C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) Comet with some horizon Comet over my house. Mars Venus Wide shot of NEOWISE

From my new fake book of illustrated poetry. Do not make me stop. Do not look for excuses There is no way back.

The theme for Flickr Friday this last week was "Stacked".  On Friday we had some unsettled weather and the clouds got dramatic.  Really good timing.  Below is the picture I posted.  It's a good picture.  It certainly fits the concept of "only post your best stuff" because this is about as good as I get.  Some other folks thought it was OK as well because it went on to Flickr's Explore page which is the sort of their front page.  A lot of other people viewed this photo, a couple of hundred stopped long enough to click the favorite star and a dozen or so took the time to drop a favorable comment.  This happened one other time and I find it interesting and to be honest great that people from all around the globe see something I've done and like it well enough to say so. 

I have been posting pictures on Flickr lately. As a way to encourage community engagement There are groups that have weekly themes to use as inspiration for photos. This week a group called Macro Monday suggested the theme "On A Coin". Object being, put something on a coin and take a picture. When I started rummaging for a coin I knew I wanted the largest I could find. That way it might be easier to find an object that would fit. The flower is Lamium amplexicaule or Henbit. I remembered having this Kennedy Half Dollar and when I found it I looked at it for a full minute. It’s dated 1971. This forty-nine year old coin commemorates the presidency of a man that won the office almost sixty years ago. Some of the core issues of his time are the core issues of this time we are now living. Those of us that were naive enough to think that the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was an end of the struggle to rid this nation of it’s worst disease has been disabused of that ...

I spied this little snail while on a walk yesterday.  I'm glad I did because I almost stepped on it. Snail In Clover Looking For Something This is with the A7RIII and the 24-105.  At 105mm and f4.  This is not a macro lens but I can get a decent close up and with the 42mp sensor I'm able to crop some to find the detail.

There is a spot, just up the road from my house, that is, at certain times of the year, the perfect place to take a picture of a rainbow.  It's near the crest of a hill.  With the sunset happening in the west, the moisture in the air will generate a rainbow over the farms to the west. Panorama of a great rainbow spot. This is such a good place because I can get the sun directly on my back when a rainbow is most likely to occur.  That has the effect of making it seem like your looking down a pipe.  Occasionally a double rainbow happens though not a complete one like this.  The photo is a series of four pictures snapped with the camera held vertically and overlapped some.  The photos are combined in Lightroom and exported as a DNG file.  After being edited for contrast and tone I can export again as a Jpeg for publishing here.  The hardest thing for me is printing.  The biggest print I can make is 13x19. Because the ratio of leng...